Sheet Music Guy !

One of the things I don’t like about running a site like this is the lack of human connection.

I’d post a video and sheetmusic, track the number of views and downloads, and know that somewhere out there in that big big world somebody might be practicing something that I had a hand in making.  Then every so often I’ll get an appreciative comment, and sometimes the occasional request for a song.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really appreciative of all the positive attention, even if I rarely respond to anybody directly, if ever.  It’s great knowing that I’m having some kind of positive influence on the world, but right now, that’s all it is….knowledge.

This site gives me a positive intellectual response, but not an emotional one.

I read some web stats, some numbers or text on a screen, and I know I’m having some kind of impact……but I don’t feel anything out of it because it’s too far removed from that level of human connection.

It’s not like you’re playing a live show, doing a speech, or telling a joke, where the response is immediate and personal.  Laughter, smiles, applause, something.  Not on the internet….the only laughter I get is “lol” and the only smiles I get are “:)”.  Dammit, I just want to feel again!!!  ha ha …lol…i mean..uh…awww….

<pause for breath>

So anyways, I was surfing youTube one day, and video searched my own name for fun.  Amongst all the results that were my own (and this other dude who took ’sheetmusicguy’ before me), I stumbled across a few performances of stuff off this site!  One guy even used the logo!! Cool!!

The best part of all this was this feeling I got while watching.  Actually being able to see and hear somebody other than myself playing those arrangements, actually seeing somebody else enjoy the results of the work I was doing.  It felt….really good!!

In response to this, I’ve set up a new section on this site for your performances.  If you ever tape yourself playing anythng off this site, I want to know about it, and I want to help you show it off….if that’s okay with you of course.

See all the posted performances so far by clicking here.

Thank you all for making me feel good 

Every few months I google the words “remix project” and see what comes up.
I did this a few weeks ago, and found this cool Mariah Carey remix contest, in support of her newest single, I’ll Be Lovin U Long Time.

I busted out a remix and entered!

Check out the remix here, and PLEASE VOTE for it!!!!
http://www.indabamusic.com/submissions/show/2389

Here’s the original song, if it’s new to you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruyKqhSidyw

Thanks so much everybody!

Hey everybody!

I finished playing the wedding last week and it went pretty well.   No screw ups!  woo hoo!!  There was a professional videographer there so hopefully when the video comes back I can post a version of it on the site.

Songs include Five For Fighting’s 100 years, and Faber Drive’s Tongue Tied, which worked really well when the bride was marching down the isle.  As for the wedding march itself, I made a bit of a mashup of the two main wedding march themes (Mendelssohn & Handel), I’ll probably post something up here for it eventually for any other wedding pianists that might find it useful.

Recently, aside from this, I’ve been wading through the requests I’ve gotten and one of them really caught my eye.  “Hmmm”, I said to myself, “this could work”…….so I bashed it out, and yes…it did work.  I taped the performance yesterday and I’ll hopefully have the sheets made and the whole thing posted really soon.

First new content in over 3 months!!  wooo!

What’s up y’all.  Long time no chat.

After about a month of virtual homelessness, squatting like bums in our own basement, the renovations are finally done and our kitchen is official pimp.  Marble countertops, limestone floors, hydraulics and 24″ rims on the stainless steel fridge.

We’re still dealing with the fallout, and moving all our crap back to where it used to go…but the important thing is……the piano is unwrapped!  And it still works!  Hurrah.

I’ve had some time to noodle around on it recently, nothing too heavy (charlie brown theme, what), and it really is nice to have it back.

Unfortunately, I still don’t think I’ll be able to have too much up in the near future.  Work has gotten pretty busy recently, there’s still a bunch of house stuff to do.

Also, I’m set to play piano at a wedding on the May 24 weekend….and we still have to work out what I’m actually playing.  This is cutting it awfully close, and I really want to make sure I have enough time to do a good job.  Excitement and nervousness are two sides of the same coin…and right now…I am feeling that coin in it’s entirety.  Once the songs are worked out I’ll be spending most of my time practicing, so there might not be much on sheetmusicguy until the wedding’s over….but afterwards, who knows?  Maybe it’ll end up on this site.

Anyways, that’s it for me….

See you guys soon!

….because he has no kitchen.

Seriously.

We’re renovating.

We’ve spent the past few weeks packing up everything and moving stuff around. The weekend was spent frantically covering everything in drop sheets.

Everything.

Includinngg……

Yup. Gonna be hard to practice Lee Hom under that.

The contractors came this morning, 8am to 6pm, and will be coming every day for the next 2 weeks…and after that we gotta put everything back.  

But we get a new kitchen out of it.  yay.

…..

Wish us luck.

This site was launched on Nov 15, 2007, almost exactly 4 months ago, and it just cracked 10,000 visits, with over 40,000 video views off youTube, 65 subscribers from youTube, and 6,700 sheetmusic downloads!!!!! Wooooo!!!

Who wants to look at some other numbers? I know I do, I can’t wait!!

Top 10 Sheetmusic Downloads Ever

1. Jay Chou - A Secret I Cannot Tell (1,145 views) <- I’m still shocked at how popular this song is
2. Jay Chou - Megamix Vol 2 (718 views) <- I’m very proud of this one, it deserves to be up there
3. Jay Chou - The Longest Movie (695 views)
4. Michael Wang - Fairytale (435 views)
5. Jay Chou - Megamix Vol 1 (376 views)
6. Jay Chou - Sunny Otaku / Sunshine Boy / whatever this translates to (341 views)
7. Rihanna - Umbrella (307 views) <- omg, english!
8. FIR - Lydia (305 views)
9. Jay Chou - Tornado (288 views)
10. Will Liu - Rainbow Heaven (275 views) <- see #2

Special Mention to Jay Chou - Secret (Time Travel Theme), which is already at #11 with 268 views despite having only been posted less than two weeks ago.

Top 5 Visitor Home Countries

Here are the top 5 countries where the visits come from:

1. United States (3,746 visits)
2. Canada (1,776 visits)
3. Singapore (1,243 visits)
4. Malaysia (825 visits)
5. Australia (728 visits)

Ironically, if you were to ask me to list 5 countries off the top of my head with predominantly English-speaking Asian people, I’d probably give you the above list as well. Even stranger is that the top three visiting states, LA, New York, and Texas, also have a high English-speaking Asian population. Coincidence….or conspiracy?? Dun dun dun! Ask Jay.

Thanks everybody for making this site a success!

Now if only the T-Shirts were doing as well.

The most popular item on this website so far has been Jay Chou’s single off his self-directed movie, Secret. Most youTube views, most downloads, and also, the most number of related requests.

To be honest I had heard the song a few times and thought it’d be fun to play, but I had no idea how big a deal this movie seemed to be. Is it really that popular? Am I really that ignorant? I figured it was time to see what the fuss was all about.

Today, after finishing up some editing on my next video (jay chou mashup! Feng vs Ge Qian!) I got myself a copy of the movie and the soundtrack. It’s a pretty decent movie, although I regret not seeing it with a girl. Not bad for a directorial debut.

Now I finally know what all these requests have been about! Finally, I can answer some of your questions about them:

1) I can’t do the Piano Battle because it is Impossible.

Have you seen that thing?!  It’s freakin impossible!  Even watching Jay do that one-handed left hand thing scared me.  I get hand cramps just from playing Guitar Hero; attempting something like this would hospitalize me.  Also, for the site, I’d rather stick to easy/medium material that most people can play, and play well, instead of posting something I can barely hit the notes to, let alone perform.  Sorry guys.

2) Time Travel sequence

I’ve gotten a handful of requests for this one, and it looks like something I can do.  The soundtrack comes with two versions:  One version sounds fairly mechanical, like it was sight read, and the other sounds like it was performed by Jay.  I’ll probably do something in the middle, but leaning towards the easier side.  I can see the video for this being pretty fun….look out for it in the future.

3) I am two hands short of the Piano Duet

There’s been one or two requests for the Piano Duet, which i think refers to the scene where Jay and the girl are both playing the same piano at the same time.  Awww.  Anyways, there’s only one of me, so pulling this off would be a bit challenging.  Maybe when I meet SheetMusicGal.  One day.  *sigh*.

4) There’s other good stuff on here y’know

Listening to the soundtrack (and the movie), there are two instrumentals that really stick out, which I think would be really fun to try.  One of them starts when Jay is playing with the girl as a ‘ghost’, and then segueways into a nice instrumental sequence.  I don’t remember where the other one’s from…but it’s nice too, ok.  Anyways, keep an eye out for these ones too.

Thanks everybody, for all the support!

My piano has been a little out of tune for a while, and it has been bugging me a little bit….but when youTubers start noticing (littledustball!!!!) I figure it was time to take action.

Long story short, my piano is in tune now, making the next song extra-awesome by default.

I’ve created a new Blog section for the site so I can talk about my feelings and stuff.  More to come soon!….

Here’s wishing everybody a Happy Holidays!!!

Regardless of what you celebrate, make sure you find some time to spend with your family and loved ones.

Don’t drink and drive…..unless it’s a driving game…..like GT4…in which case, bottom’s up!  Cheers!

See y’all soon!